UNM, Chilean researchers join fight against hantavirus

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Researchers from the University of New Mexico and Chile are teaming up in the fight against a fatal viral infection spread by rural rodents.

Eight Chileans working on the project were in Albuquerque during the last couple of weeks to learn some techniques in tracking and analyzing hantavirus, while some UNM experts are heading to the South American country to help shepherd the research.

Hantavirus usually is spread through contact with infected rodents or their droppings, urine, saliva or nesting materials. The syndrome begins with fever, muscle aches, nausea and vomiting and can lead to respiratory failure and shock.

New Mexico had 43 cases of hantavirus, 22 of them fatal. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted more than 200 cases in 30 states, with about 45 percent being fatal.

Because so few people are infected with hantavirus, it's important to pool information across national borders to better understand the often-deadly disease process, said Greg Mertz, chief of the division of infectious diseases at the UNM School of Medicine.

"We need international collaboration between groups. Only with those can you answer questions that will benefit people of all countries," Mertz said.

The five-year project has $3 million in grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and the Fogarty International Center.

Research projects included in the funding will look at how climate and rodent numbers interact to increase the possibility of people coming into contact with the virus as well as an epidemiological study that focuses on person-to-person transmission of the virus.

Researchers will also investigate which treatments are best for hantavirus victims.

In Chile, much of the work will take place in Coyhaique in Patagonia, an area responsible for one-third of that country's hantavirus cases, Mertz said. Work also will be done in Temuco, which is about halfway between Coyhaique and Santiago, he said.

It's hoped the studies can yield a good prediction model for the conditions that put people at higher-than-usual risk of being in contact with the virus as well as better knowledge about what treatments might work best, Mertz said.